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I don't use a vest, but I have a May pack . 2 boxes of flies ... one wet, one dry, roughly 16 per box. 3 tippet spools, 2 with tippet, one empty. Zinger with hemostats, and nippers. A "tail knotter" tool. An Able tool. A big orange whistle. I tend to fish fairly light!! Oh, and a chamois like cloth from BP that sucks goop off a fly, or your hands. That's it!

Trouts don't live in ugly places.

A friend is not who knows you the longest, but the one who came and never left your side.

I hardly wear a vest but I fish mostly for steelhead and all I need is one box of flies, tippet or leader, nippers, hook file, tip wallet. All of this will fit into the pockets of my rain coat or the upper pockets of my waders on those rare occaisions when I don't need a raincoat, nippers and hook file are on a lanyard. Oh, and in the back storage pocket of the rain coat is a ziploc bag with a partial roll of tp.

"The reason you have a good vision is you're standing on the shoulders of giants." ~ Andy Batcho

For years I never used a vest. The reason was for the same reason stated in the article. They were just too heavy and I found they got in the way when I was fishing. I also lost a lot of stuff out of them.

I just used a small pouch that held two or three small fly boxes and a few other essentials and I used a lanyard.

I ended up buying a vest last summer...the Filson Strap Vest. I'm not sure what the major driving force was that got me to put the bucks down for it. I always liked it's classic look but I think the reason I felt I had to have it was because I was needing a way to carry a rainjacket, food and drink with me on full day outings. I really didn't want to use my regular day pack for that. This vest has a nice little pouch in the back that would hold all that.

This year the vest started out HEAVY ... but now I have that tamed down again. What is with the idea that we have to fill every pocket? I had the thing stuffed at first. Now I go through the vest every couple of weeks, sometimes every couple of days, to decide what is now what is now obsolete. There's no point in carrying several boxes of flies I won't use and other items I won't be using on a particular outing. Most of my tools are still on my lanyard. On some nice days or a short outings I don't even need the vest. Once I've fished an area I can get it down to one box and my lanyard.
My wading staff is attached to my belt.

"There's more B.S. in fly fishing than there is in a Kansas feedlot." Lefty Kreh

if I'm dry flying (small creeks)
3x - 5x tippet
3 fly boxes
dry fly's (has a few small nymphs in it, usually if I want a dropper I'll do something more like a midge emerger, or the swamph or whatever it's called lol). also a few large fly's in this box like hoppers, chernobyl ants etc which I usually only use as a strike indicator for a dropper)
streamer box
floatant
insect repellent
leatherman
zinger w/ clippers /hook eye cleaner (only zinger I use)

most of my time on larger waters is in my boat. I carry everything including the kitchen sink, and I don't feel iike writing a book so we'll just list the contents of my 1 bag that I fish out of. no vest here